


Come Home

by whattheflameo



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: And you can pry that from my cold dead hands, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Lin saves Kya this time, Panic Attacks, but they're Officially Dating, kya is claustrophobic, post-zaheer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:15:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28485219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whattheflameo/pseuds/whattheflameo
Summary: Kya's brothers have been sent home, but the doctors don't want her to leave yet. When that doesn't go over well, Lin takes things into her own hands.
Relationships: Lin Beifong/Kya II
Comments: 10
Kudos: 155





	Come Home

**Author's Note:**

> Here, have a bunch of entirely self-indulgent 2am hurt/comfort. Why? Because self-reliant "You can't tie me down" Kya is not suited for staying alone in a hospital room. Especially not after the whole Zaheer thing. This isn't beta read and I'm sleep-deprived so gimme a shoutout if theres like... a whole ass incomplete sentence or something.

It’s probably waking up without her brothers that starts off Kya’s bad day.

They’ve all been in the hospital together for over a week. Even the city’s foremost healers are no Kya, or Katara for that matter, and Korra isn’t exactly in healing shape. So they’re stuck in the hospital on mainland Republic City until doctors deem them well enough to be on their own. And despite the fact that it’s busy and uncomfortable and hard to sleep, Kya doesn’t mind it, because it’s an excuse to be in the same room as her the two of them.

The brothers she so easily could have lost at any point in the Red Lotus’ attack.

It wasn’t just them. Knowing Korra was down the hall did little to alleviate her worry about the young Avatar. If she thought too hard about the rest of her family being all the way on air temple island, or all the way in the South Pole or Zaofu or the Fire Nation, her hands shook. It took her a little over a day to pinpoint their being out of sight as the source of her anxiety. With her brothers in front of her, alive and real and healing, it had been easier to remember that everything was fine.

But Bumi and Tenzin hadn’t broken their legs, just a few ribs, and so they had both been released yesterday. Lin had stayed until she fell asleep, but Kya had woken up in the three-person room alone for the first time in a week, and her breathing hasn’t been relaxed ever since.

Somehow, the empty room feels smaller than it had when it was full. Every time she glances at the walls, they seem a bit closer. Every look out the window reveals another scuff on the glass. Every time the door opens, it clicks shut even louder.

She asks if she can transfer to a wheelchair just to get out of the room. They let her, but even in the courtyard garden she can’t seem to find a centered position to meditate. The orchids and bamboo only do so much to disguise the brick walls of the building surrounding them.

Eventually, she knows this courtyard isn’t going to help. She hasn’t had a true panic attack in years, but she can recognize the symptoms. She’s been trying to focus on breathing, on her hands, on anything else that can usually ground her, but it’s not working. She loses her composure not long after sitting back down in the bed. Kya draws her good knee up to her chest and sobs.

This is how Lin finds her when she comes in for lunch. Her girlfriend immediately drops whatever it is she’s holding and rushes to Kya’s side. "Kya? What’s wrong? What is it?"

Kya can’t answer. Lin sits beside her on the bed, close but not quite touching. "Can I give you a hug?"

Before she can finish the question, Kya throws herself into her arms. Lin doesn’t waver when she catches her. "It’s okay. Breathe, darling, you’ve got to take a breath for me." She tries, honestly tries, and she’s at least able to stop gasping so hard.

Kya isn’t sure how long Lin rocks her on the hospital bed, but she knows it’s long. The anxiety isn’t stopping. With her eyes closed and her face buried in her girlfriend’s neck, she can pretend she isn’t here, trapped in some hospital room with no hope of ever getting out. But as soon as she opens her eyes, she chokes again. Because the room is still there. She’s still not allowed to leave.

Eventually, someone else comes in. Kya doesn’t look to see who it is, doesn’t listen to most of what they’re saying. Doesn’t want to focus on anything outside of Lin.

Lin’s response echoes in her chest with a low rumble. "...almost healed...taking her..."

Somebody pulls her away from Lin and she flails out in panic. Her eyes fly open to find a man looking down at her, holding her shoulders to keep her looking at him.

"Master Kya. Master Kya, I need you to tell me if you want to leave with Chief Beifong."

Does she want to leave? Yes, she wants to shout, yes, yes, but all she can do is frantically nod her head, breathing too hard to try and speak. She wants out, but nobody’s going to let her.

The man- a healer, she makes herself remember, he’s some sort of healer- shakes her shoulders. He’s saying something but she can’t hear him over the ringing in her ears as she sees the room closing in even smaller. He shakes her again and it hurts this time. She tries to pull away, hiding her face in her hands.

"That’s enough!" That’s Lin’s voice. It’s her Chief voice, the angry one. The healer is suddenly gone. "So help me Spirits I am taking her and you can try and stop me." Someone touches her again, gentler this time, and even in this state she can recognize the feeling of Lin’s hand.

She brushes away one of Kya’s tears with her thumb. "Hey, hey, Darling. We’re going home now, okay? I’m going to take you home."

Kya grabs onto her hand, holding it against her cheek, and nods with everything she has left. "I wanna go home," she finally forces out.

Within seconds, she’s bundled up in the blanket Pema had brought from the island, and Lin is lifting her carefully into the wheelchair from earlier. Watching the hospital walls roll by should be a relief. She keeps her eyes closed and doesn’t look.

She still can’t stop crying.

The ride home passes by in a blur. Kya is doing her best to focus on not crying, on just calming down and breathing. By the time Lin lifts her out of the passenger seat, she’s at least no longer sobbing hysterically, if only because she no longer has the energy for it.

Lin carries her up to their apartment gingerly, mindful of Kya’s still-healing leg, but never once falters in her hold. She kicks the door shut after they enter and heads straight for their bedroom. This door she leaves open. She lays Kya down in their bed with the utmost care, but rather than getting in beside her Lin pulls away. Kya aches at the loss but doesn’t have the strength to argue.

She watches with watery eyes as Lin moves quickly about the room. A flick of her wrist and the window opens, the curtains sweeping aside with the breeze. She disappears back into the living room, and Kya hears the patio door open as well. After a moment, she can feel the wind moving through the apartment. At the corner of the building, it almost becomes a wind funnel when everything is open, the air taking the shorter path to the next street almost gleefully. The more she focuses on it, the easier it is to breathe.

Lin’s back beside her not a minute later. She sets a pitcher of water down on the nightstand and climbs into bed behind Kya, propping the older woman up against her chest. Kya feels a glass being pressed into her hand. "Drink this," Lin urges softly, and Kya shakily lifts the glass to her lips. By the time it’s done, her throat doesn’t feel quite so tight.

Lin pulls her close and tucks Kya’s head beneath her chin. "We’re home now. Everything’s open; you’re not trapped. You can leave any time you’d like. No one is going to force you to stay."

Kya fists her hands in Lin’s shirt and holds on with everything she has, thanking every spirit and some of them twice for this woman who understands, who knows Kya’s fears and doesn’t fault her for them. Who wouldn’t hold her back if she wanted to run.

It’s the knowing that makes Kya want to stay.

She takes a deep breath and rolls over so that she's practically laying on top of Lin, dragging the heavy weight of her boot with her. Rests her head against Lin's collarbone and just listens. The sounds of the breeze moving through their apartment and Lin’s slow breathing begin to replace the blood rushing in her ears.

"They- They wouldn’t let me _leave_ , Lin, I-"

Lin hushes her. "I know, my dear." She gathers the hair off of Kya’s neck and begins stroking her thumb over the spot behind her ear that always makes her sigh in contentment.

"Bumi, and- and Tenzin and-"

"They’re perfectly safe. We can call them, if you’d like. Or I can take you to see them."

Part of Kya wants to take her up on it. The bigger part of her wants to keep holding on to Lin- sure, steady, understanding Lin, who stays like an anchor no matter how far away Kya floats, always home to come back to- and feeling the breeze on her legs as the room and the world slowly expand back to their normal dimensions. So she shakes her head and settles further into her girlfriend’s embrace. Lin’s arms are gentle around her, loose but strong, leaving Kya room to move while still keeping her safe. Kya can feel the exhaustion slowly creeping in, her eyes stinging and tired. But her chest feels lighter. The ever-tightening weight from this morning has receded to a bearable level. She has options. She's not going to wake up and see a closed room and a single dingy window. With those assurances in mind, Kya closes her eyes and lets herself drift into rest holding tight to her anchor.


End file.
